www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20081007/ZNYT05/810070336/ -
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Published on: 10/7/2008
Last Visited: 10/7/2008
MUNICH , Peter Y. Solmssen may have an important title as general counsel of the German engineering company Siemens, but he is just one of about 400,000 employees.Which is why his job as the enforcer of anticorruption rules is so difficult.
Mr. Solmssen, who joined Siemens in 2007 after nine years at General Electric, got a taste of what he was up against on a recent swing through the Americas.At a meeting with employees in Mexico, he explained the need for Siemens to change its ways after an extensive bribery scandal two years ago.Then, Mr. Solmssen took questions.
One employee promptly stood up and asked, point-blank, who exactly this American guy was.
,When you,re an executive of a huge company,, the Philadelphia-born Mr. Solmssen said, recalling the moment in a recent interview, ,you,re not in the daily life of some people who are in the field.,
For many years, corruption was extensive at Siemens.It is Mr. Solmssen,s task to root it out at a company where new rules and procedures , and a lot of speechifying on the road , cannot ensure that everyone gets the message.
And the authorities are watching closely.
The Justice Department is nearing the end of an investigation into bribery charges involving Siemens.
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The company,s size, with operations in 190 countries, may have also encouraged a tendency to skirt the law, which is one reason Mr. Solmssen calls his experience in Mexico ,an amusing but sobering moment.,
In a profession where reputation is everything, Mr. Solmssen, 53, can claim a powerful professional pedigree.He worked at General Electric, which is widely considered to be a pioneer in compliance efforts, for nine years before being chosen last year by Mr. L,scher to handle the legal affairs at Siemens.
Mr. Solmssen is also an old Germany hand, a grandson of the chairman of Deutsche Bank and a former corporate lawyer in Frankfurt.
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The company,s compliance staff has grown to slightly fewer than 500, from 86 in 2006, and includes a former Interpol investigator and other experienced law enforcement people, Mr. Solmssen said.
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By contrast, Mr. Solmssen said, ,if you,re selling to Wal-Mart, it,s a different risk analysis.,
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Mr. Solmssen rejects such talk, noting that Siemens has delivered good results in the last two years, despite its cleanup and despite the global economic slowdown.But this refrain will not go away in Germany, which was much slower than the United States to adopt antibribery rules like the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Mr. Solmssen does not rule out the possibility that further evidence of bribery could be uncovered.But he insists that the kind of far-reaching scandals that shook Siemens to its core are a thing of the past.
,Are we confident in stamping out corruption?, he said. ,We,ve made substantial progress.It,s never over.,
But he added, ,We are quite confident we have eliminated anything systemic.,
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